Collected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer

The only freedom that exists is of a metaphysical character. In the physical world freedom is an impossibility. Accordingly, while our several actions are in no wise free, every man’s individual character is to be regarded as a free act. He is such and such a man, because once for all it is his will to be that man. For the will itself, and in itself, and also in so far as it is manifest in an individual, and accordingly constitutes the original and fundamental desires of that individual, is independent of all knowledge, because it is antecedent to such knowledge.

man is the only animal which causes pain to others without any further purpose than just to cause it.

Now hatred is by far the longest pleasure,

Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure